But seriously, a well organized field trip brings the students into direct contact with reality. Textbook examples all see to work out to a nice neat answer. Real world problems have a nasty habit of NOT fitting the textbook examples, and seldom have nice neat answers….instead they then to have a range of possible solution alternatives. Which one gets selected or implemented depends on other real world factors (e.g. politics, corruption, money, greed, brute force, violent resistance to change), some of which defy logic and reason.

Have you ever taken a first aid class. Everyone goes through and reads the book and passes the test and gets certified. But when you have to deal with the first real accident scene with the blood, gore, screaming, emotional stress….and then find you don’t have that really nice super deluxe first aid kit….well…..some of the folks that passed with the highest test scores choke and some just plain lose it all. See the advantage of training with reality and the textbook? Well, natural science field trips aren’t quiet that dramatic, but I think you get the point.

However, many institutions are cutting back on field trips for a variety of reasons….budget, liability risk, lack of interested faculty, etc. It takes a lot of time and effort to organize them well.

I did most of my undergraduate “field trips” as a volunteer for grad students in their research. That gave me a better insight as to which upper division courses to take and a better understanding as to why I had to take other courses I wasn’t that interested to take.

Hope this helps. Best wishes to you and your endeavors.

I love field trips and I got to see many things in action. When learning about Pioneers in grade 3, our class went to pioneer village and I got to see the houses they lived in and what they did in a normal day. It was soo cool seeing the tools they used and how they dressed!